Acca Larentia killings

The Acca Larentia killings occurred in Rome, Italy on 7 January 1978 during the "Years of Lead". At 6:20 PM, a group of Italian Social Movement youth activists left the MSI headquarters on Via Acca Larenzia in the Tuscolano district, preparing to hand out MSI leaflets. The five MSI members were ambushed by left-wing militants and sprayed with fire, and Franco Bigonzetti and Francesco Ciavatta were killed, while an engineer was wounded. In the following hours, a crowd of MSI supporters arranged a sit-in demonstration at the site of the killings. After an RAI journalist absent-mindedly threw a cigarette butt into a pool of one of the victims' blood, the neo-fascists damaged the RAI crews' cameras, leading to the police being called in. MSI member and guitarist Stefano Recchioni was shot dead by the police, becoming the third fatal victim of the shootings. The killings led to a rise in far-right militancy against the left.